General Description

Most industrial operations have many pieces of equipment with metal parts which are subject to cracking due to excessing loading. Prior to failure, these parts can develop micro-cracks which can propagate and cause failures. During normal servicing cycles, these cracks are detected by visual inspection or other means, and are scheduled for expedited repair, which is approximately 3 times more costly in most cases. However, if repairs cannot be performed immediately, extended downtime can result in production loss. Equipment put back in service without repair requires constant monitoring to prevent field failures, further equipment damage, production downtime, injury of personnel, and perhaps even loss of life.

Manual inspection is the most common method of monitoring these cracks. At best, this is a highly subjective and imprecise manner to monitor crack propagation. In addition, manual inspection usually requires equipment to be taken off line, and as a result, is not a cost effective maintenance procedure.

Scanimetrics’ Wireless Crack Propagation Monitoring System can be used to accurately monitor crack propagation on metal parts so that optimal maintenance decisions can be made on repair and replacement. Operators and Maintenance Managers can be informed directly by the system through email, text message, voice message, or web update, of impending failures, enabling maintenance to be scheduled when convenient, without the need for expedited repairs.

The Crack Propagation Monitoring System in Action

Features

Scanimetrics’ Crack Propagation Monitoring System is a wireless, electronic system used to detect crack propagation in metallic objects.

Sensors are spot welded in place (or bonded to the surface with epoxy) and then typically covered with special materials to protect the electronics from the harsh environments

Data from the crack sensors are monitored electronically and stored in the wireless sensing module (called “Motes”).

Data log files from these Motes can then be transmitted via a 900MHz wireless connection to a PC or via a cellular modem gateway to a remote server.

Benefits

Crack propagation monitored electronically

No need for constant visual inspections

Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) practices can be used to determine when repairs actually need to be done; and scheduled when convenient